The Prospector

Occasional ramblings from an Alaskan prospector:
"Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind,
there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling,
calling. . .let us go." Robert Service

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Day 2 on the 1000 mile trail...

Sunday morning, Race Mngr. Josea with Anthony and Josh (her right and left hand logistics helpers) left Fairbanks at 2 am in hopes of making Mile 101, the next checkpoint, close to the arrival of the lead mushers. Unfortunately, the wind had drifted in 12 Mile Summit so the going was a little slow, but they arrived at 101 around 4 am to find 6 mushers had already arrived with Zack Steer still leading.

We left later in the morning and enjoyed the ride up the Steese Hwy, my first return in 35 years. After crossing 12 Mile Summit and dropping into the Birch Creek drainage, we started seeing caribou, mostly on the overflow of the creeks. We arrived at Mile 101 and watched a few teams enter and leave and then began the climb up Eagle Summit. Towards the top, we were able to see the valley below, and just make out a team making it's way up Eagle Creek towards the summit a 1000 feet higher; a small speck of humanity in a vast wilderness. We watched until the dogs, sled and musher vanished up a side pup. Then we journeyed on towards Central, the next checkpoint.

We arrived in Central with many teams taking a rest and just a few of the leaders already out on the trail to Circle, including Zack Steer. The trail conditions were a bit rough through the burn area of the 2004 fires, but snow conditions good and temperatures downright balmy, at least for a Yukon Quest musher. Mid day temperatures nearly reached 20....ABOVE. As I scribe this a few days later, the first 16 teams have already reached Dawson City in the Yukon, some 400 miles further up the trail, with Hans Gatt leading a very competitive race. Conditions remain excellent in a mild northern February.